BEIJING -- As coaches take notes, teenagers dribble footballs through a course of cones on Ritan Middle Schools gleaming artificial field in eastern Beijing, part of a massive program to promote soccer as a pillar of Chinas rise to global prominence.The 14-year-old boys and girls were being scrutinized under a newly added section of Beijings high school entrance exam, which beginning this year includes an elective football skills test in addition to such standards as Chinese, math, and English.While the skills tests comprise only a small part of the placement exam, the fact education officials tweaked a notoriously rigid standardized test is one sign of how thoroughly China is mobilizing under President Xi Jinpings drive to overhaul the game domestically and turn the Chinese team into a World Cup winner by 2050.The football revolution spans from schoolyards to the top professional league. Local officials tout how thousands of high schools are becoming government-designated football priority schools. Cities announce hundreds of football complexes being built every week.Chinese clubs are paying record fees to woo stars away from Europe and boost interest in the domestic league. And in the past year alone, Chinese investors have spent a staggering $3 billion to buy stakes in European clubs, with the stated aim of bringing football know-how back to China.Weve talked about football under several top leaders but until now, there has never been this will, said Pang Xiaozhong, former director of the Institute of Sport Science, an arm of Chinas state sports program. Its unprecedented.Boosting Chinas standing in the game is part of Xis push to raise Chinas global prestige. With the national mens team ranked No. 78, a turnaround would be nothing short of cathartic. While the womens team has often found international success, Chinas men have qualified for only one World Cup, bouncing out of the 2002 competition without scoring a goal.Decades after Chinas government successfully created a Soviet-style sports juggernaut, emphasizing highly technical disciplines such as diving, the question is whether the sports-by-diktat approach can work for the worlds most popular game. Unlike sports such as gymnastics, in which elite state academies develop selected prospects from a young age, commentators say football success will require a huge player base and vibrant, structured youth leagues -- all of which China is trying to create practically from scratch.In May, the cabinet issued a 50-point plan that called on local and provincial governments to promote football by setting up school programs, creating amateur leagues, offering tax breaks for pitch construction and recruiting foreign coaches with the goal of establishing 70,000 new fields and producing 50 million school-age players by 2020.In a top-down system under which the ruling Communist Party still issues five-year economic plans, this state-led mix of infrastructure investment and mass grassroots mobilization is precisely what Beijing sees as needed to bring home a World Cup trophy.In China, the role of the government is always the biggest and most effective, Pang said. Football is something we can grasp if were methodic.Although the government has not released cost estimates for its development plan, analysts say hundreds of millions could be spent over the next five years on facilities alone.What has been made public, however, is the $300 million this year that Chinese Super League clubs have splashed out recruiting stars such as Ramires, Alex Teixeira, Ezequiel Lavezzi, Jackson Martinez and former Arsenal striker Gervinho. And that does not include the wages on offer at Chinese clubs, which are now some of the highest in the world.Clubs have also splurged on high-profile coaches, including ex-Real Madrid and Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini, former Brazil boss Luiz Felipe Scolari and one-time England boss Sven-Goran Eriksson.Jonathan Sullivan, director of the China Policy Institute at the University of Nottingham, said theres no reason to doubt China could become a regional football superpower. But he warned there were similarities with the governments approach to economic planning that, despite its successes, can lead to inefficiency or graft. One example is the wave of interest that followed the 2002 World Cup run, which quickly fizzled out when the domestic league was hit by rampant corruption scandals.The leadership sketches a hugely ambitious and yet ambiguous vision and people lower down the chain -- government bureaus, provincial governments -- and those hoping to curry favor, especially in business, pick it up and run with it, Sullivan said. The problem is everyone often runs in different directions.Chinese football investors are already scrambling to buy into storied clubs such as Inter Milan and AC Milan, sometimes speaking of those deals as patriotic buyers.In a recent interview, Jiantong Tony Xia, who took over Englands Aston Villa in May, said a main objective was to eventually field Chinese players and establish academies.Its been proven that buying foreign firms with know-how and then bringing that back to the domestic industry has been the most efficient route, Xia said.As Chinas most powerful leader in decades, Xis personal influence on the promotion of football has been enormous.The president makes no secret of his love for the game which he picked up as a child playing alongside the scions of other Communist Party leaders at the elite Beijing 101 Middle School.A 1983 exhibition match between China and English club Watford was said to have left a particular impression on Xi. China was then just opening up to the outside world after decades of Maoism, and when Watford trounced the Chinese national team, Xi left the Beijing Workers Stadium fuming, childhood friend Nie Weiping recalled in an interview years later with state media.He felt hurt watching the match, Nie was quoted as saying. But hes continued to always follow Team China.Those presidential concerns appear to be having a direct effect at the grassroots.On the leafy Ritan Middle School campus, extracurricular director Xu Fuxing described how the public schools budget has risen 25 percent since Xis administration made sports an educational priority.The campus recently resurfaced an artificial field and Xu has hired youth football academy Huawen to train its students. Aside from offering traveling competitions that barely existed a few years ago, Huawen employs coaches such as Juan Varela, a former trainer with Atletico Madrid who moved to China earlier this year and works with help from translators.Speaking over Varelas cries of Spread out! Spread out! as eight-year-old kids swarmed after loose balls, Xu said the national plans key element is to encourage the formation of clubs and leagues to offer competitive experiences to young players.Even small measures such as Beijings new football exam have encouraged kids to try the game and, as Xu said, It symbolizes much more to come. Nike Shoes Cheap . Detroit and Boston are deadlocked, 1-1, and Tigers manager Jim Leyland could be forgiven if he was caught rationalizing instead of dissecting how his club could blow a 5-1 lead late in Game 2. Authentic Nike Shoes From China . A forerunning sled crashed into the worker Thursday at the Sanki Sliding Center. The unidentified worker broke both legs and was airlifted to a nearby hospital. http://www.nikeshoescheapchina.com/ . The FA rejected Wilsheres appeal that the length of his punishment was "clearly excessive" and said Thursday his suspension begins with immediate effect. He will miss league matches against Chelsea on Monday and West Ham on Dec. Nike Shoes Cheap Sale .B. -- The Baie-Comeau Drakkar took over sole possession of first place atop the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League on Thursday with their sixth straight win. Nike Shoes Outlet China . In taking its goal tally to 99 in all competitions already this season, City delivered another demonstration of its lethal firepower at Etihad Stadium to set up a fourth-round match at home to another second-tier team -- Watford.Manor will run development driver Jordan King and Rio Haryanto during next weeks Pirelli tyre test in Abu Dhabi. The test, which takes place two days after Sundays grand prix at the Yas Marina circuit, will give King his first opportunity to drive an F1 car.The Development Driver role has been a fantastic opportunity for me this season and I have enjoyed and benefited from every minute spent with the team, the 21-year-old Briton said. The European rounds of GP2 Series mirrored the F1 races, so it was very easy to combine my racing commitments with spending time shadowing the Manor drivers and engineers.In Austin and Mexico, I was able to fully immerse myself in the F1 environment and Im learning about how things work on and off the race track.Naturally, what Ive been looking forward to most is the chance to drive the MR03B, and I cant wait to bring everything Ive learned together in Abu Dhabi next week.Haryanto has already taken part in two young driver tests with the team, in 2010 and 2012. Rio Haryanto first tested for Manor in 2010 Im really looking forward to being back with the team at the Abu Dhabi test, the 22-year-old Indonesian said. In many ways it is essentially the same team, although the car is quite different.I feel much better prepared for this test, and after a very competitive season in GP2, I cant wait to show how much I have developed to becoome a more complete driver.ddddddddddddThis season, both drivers are competing in GP2 Series, with Haryanto currently fourth and Jordan 12th in the drivers standings ahead of the final rounds, also in Abu Dhabi this weekend.We look forward to providing Rio and Jordan with the opportunity to drive the MR03B in Abu Dhabi next week, team principal John Booth added. For Jordan, this is a planned part of his 2015 role as Development Driver, following a season spent with the team in an educational capacity.Rio has of course driven two of our cars in previous tests. In 2010, he was considered to be at the very tender age of 17 years old, but we knew he had an exciting future ahead of him.Both drivers have extensive experience of running Pirelli tyres in GP2, and specifically the many GP2 tests that have been held in Abu Dhabi, so this leaves them well placed to help us play our part in Pirellis evaluation programme next week. Get Sky Sports Alerts Breaking news and results from the world of F1, direct to your mobile Watch the Abu Dhabi GP live on Sky Sports F1. Race-show coverage begins at 11:30am on Sunday with lights out at 1pm. Watch all three days of the Abu Dhabi GP for £10.99 on NOW TV. No contract. Also See: Lowdon & Booth exits confirmed Manor attracts US interest ' ' '